Ecca collection

Aluminium Centrum

Few buildings evoke the universal response ‘how on earth does it stand up?’ but the Aluminium Centrum in Houten, the Netherlands, is one of them. A flat simple slab of a building (although not as simple as it first looks) is supported on the slenderest possible of supports coming up out of the water. On a day when the light is right, with reflections in the still water, the effect is of the tentacles of a jellyfish – not the most structurally rigid of concepts.

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Ferrari World

One design issue that was never in question at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi was the colour of the roof cladding. Ferrari red was the only colour under discussion for this giant building whose roof, splatted like an outsize starfish onto Yas Island, apparently mimics the double-curvature of the side elevation of a Ferrari GT.

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School Het Perron

Educational theories seem to be one of the fastest changing areas of modern life, as educators struggle to help young people fit themselves to our evolving and challenging world. How then can an architect design a building that will stand for at least 30 years, and accommodate change of which we have not even dreamed?

Images courtesy of ZEEP architecten Amersfoort, Sigrid Schaap, Mark van den Boorn

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